A Garden Railway Pipedream: the odyssey continues

Dikitriki

Flying Squad
The exciting end of the point is now taking shape:

P1010365a.jpg

I need to get the second check rail in, and the rail beyond the point, and I can then start pushing vehicles through to test clearance.

The distance between the nose of the vee and the sharp bend in the wing rail (ie the potential 'drop' area) is 15mm.. I would be very interested to compare this figure with those for Scale1/32 track ..... Jim?.......and also the traditional standard track.

Richard
 

JimG

Western Thunderer
I don't know if this answers your question but here are crossings in the three different standards ...

G1Crossings.jpg

On the left is the G1 Standard with the 3mm flangeways and the gap from the blunt nose to the centre of the knuckle is 23.69mm. The centre crossing is to the "Wynne/Dikitriki" standards (as yet awaiting a name confirmed) with 2.5mm flangeways and a gap from the blunt nose to the centre of the knuckle of 20.58mm. The crossing on the right is to ScaleOne32 standards with 1.5mm flangeways and the distance from the blunt nose to the centre of the knuckle is 13.60mm.

I think the crossing that Richard is building is the sharper of the two turnouts I drew up for him with a crossing angle of 1:6.5, and that's the crossing I've used in the above diagram. I'm not exactly sure how Richard has measured a shorter gap but there definitely is an improvement at the crossing nose over the G1 Standard.

Jim.
 

Dikitriki

Flying Squad
Thanks Jim,

I don't file back the sharp point of the vee as far as I should, so it sits at the end of the timber, and is slightly thinner than it should be, but I am obviously very pleased at the improvement. There is always variation in hand-building points, but the nose to centre of knuckle can be no more than 16mm......and yes, it's the sharper of the 2 points.

Richard
 

Dikitriki

Flying Squad
OK, I've just put a vernier on it as opposed to using a mk 1 eyeball and a rule. The distance on the straighter line from the end of the V to my cut on the wing rail bend is 16.7mm. My first measurment went to the end of the gap on the wing rail (rather than the centre), and so was smaller.

R
 

Dikitriki

Flying Squad
Yesterday we started laying the outer circuit. This was to a 10ft 8inch radius curve with the aid of a template. The outer rail is canted, working up from 1mm to 3mm as a maximum. It should - I hope - be just enough to be noticeable, without causing running problems. We still need to do a little more work, including electrical connections before ballasting, but a bit of a milestone none-the-less.

P1010370a.jpg

P1010367a.jpg

Richard
 

Dikitriki

Flying Squad
Hi,

Weather has not been so good of late, so progress has slowed. Despite a bad start to the day, we did manage to get outside yesterday afternoon. We laid more of the outside curve and started doubling the track. We have deinsulated the fishplates by adding some phosphor-bronze strip through the bottom of the fishplate, under the rail to bridge the gap, and liberally coated the strip with copper grease. It has worked so far, but I will solder wire to the rail either side of the joins to bond them properly.

P1010376b.jpg

P1010377b.jpg

Fingers crossed for good weather Saturday. Apart from the gang descending, I need to tackle the untamed jungle that was the garden.

Richard
 

vonmarshall

Active Member
Hi Richard

I am absolutely loving this thread. It is great to see somebody executing what is normally just a pipe dream, and to see it done in such a well thought-out way is a treat. I am a big fan of your over-engineering and of the wonderful curves you have made. Inspiring stuff!

Did you do any work on the viaduct over the winter?

I have been building up a selection of O Gauge locos and coaches over the years with the hope one day of building a garden railway for them to run on. As a fan of the late 20's GWR era, I was inspired by a photo of Alan Brackenburgh's garden railway I saw in an on magazine, but seeing your G1 locos and the presence they have means I am now having doubts about my chosen scale. This could be an expensive thread to follow!
 

Dikitriki

Flying Squad
Hi VM,

Thank you for your comments. The viaduct did have some work done - on carving the stone relief into the mould sides - but that is not finished. I felt it was more important that I built the pointwork and get something running. I am quite prepared to erect a temporary line where the viaduct is so we can run over a full circuit, and then add the viaduct later, probably next year now. I am still hopeful that we will be running later this year.

I have been fortunate to visit Alan Brackenborough's garden railway, and it is beautiful, but there is an undeniable presence with G1.

Richard
 

Dikitriki

Flying Squad
Hi,

We did manage to get quite a lot of work done yesterday, even if Roger and I were sheltering under the gazebo from the torrential rain at one point. We had thunder, lightning, heavy rain, and then the garden railway Gods came out to play and the sun shone for the rest of the day:)

We have something over 1/5 of the main line laid, still needs levelling and canting and electrification, but we now all know what we're doing and progress is quicker.

P1010379a.jpg

P1010380a.jpg

Richard
 

Dikitriki

Flying Squad
Weather followed a similar pattern last Wednesday....heavy rain at first, sunny afternoon.

We just continued working our way round the beds. I do like using 6ft panels, progress seems pretty quick:)

This photo shows the change of direction round the beds - I rather like the shape of the curves.

P1010383a.jpg

This one shows the very busy section where the two sets of running lines run alongside each other with the storage roads behind:

P1010384a.jpg

And this shows where we got up to. Top left, you can just see where the line will go into the viaduct.

P1010385a.jpg

I reckon about 10 more working days until we can get something running properly:)

Richard
 

Dikitriki

Flying Squad
Hi Chris,

We are! It is also a case of making a virtue of a necessity as we needed to try to blend the railway in with the garden as far as possible to please the domestic authorities. The only way we could do that was to weave in and out of the beds and down the fence. It was fortuitous that we could do that while maintaining a minimum 10ft radius. The only place where the railway is really intrusive is with the steam up and storage areas, but then we have never used that part of the garden anyway. We will make it less obtrusive through careful planting, and more 'designer' with a flat concrete bed to stand on (ground is very uneven and slopes, so is not suitable as is for a steam up area) covered with purple slate chippings. The viaduct will be fairly obtrusive, but we will make that a feature.

It helped (I think) when my father in law came a couple of weeks ago and announced to my wife that the railway really enhances the garden. I don't think I'd go that far, but I liked the sentiment.

Richard
 

Dikitriki

Flying Squad
Hi,

I've now got the first pair of turnouts completed and wired. They're big - makes 7mm look small - and difficult to photograph!

P1010434a.jpg

P1010435a.jpg

P1010436a.jpg


P1010437a.jpg

P1010438a.jpg
I have tried to make the wiring bomb-proof as far as possible by having two soldered points to each rail.

P1010440a.jpg

P1010439a.jpg

We have pushed a few locos over the points to test the gauge etc.
The Marklin live steam BR44 2-10-0 and BR78 4-6-4 sailed through, as did the Finescale Brass 80000 and KM1 BR38 The only failure was with a Kiss BR65 2-8-4. Here the pony and bogie truck wheel flanges hit the crossing nose. Curiously, the drivers were fine. A closer examination revealed that the carrying wheels had an appreciably wider back-to back than the drivers: we are investigating their construction to see if we can bring them within tolerances.

All being well, the points will be laid tomorrow and we can do some powered testing.

Richard
 
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Dikitriki

Flying Squad
Thanks Chris....I was flat against the furniture as it was:)

Anyhow, the points have left the board....to be replaced with some more points. This is the crossover, but done as 2 separate units. Roger and Clive prepared the timbering and put the chairs on the first rail when the weather wasn't so good. I get to take it from here.

P1010442a.jpg

And here's the previous pointwork in position:

P1010446a.jpg

Lady Dikitriki has grubbed out the overgrown stuff along the fence, and decided a weed-free bark covered border with lots of pots is the answer along here. It took a fair time on Wednesday to locate the points in just the correct position, but the flow of the main line is exactly what I wanted. I will take more pictures of progress when the sun is in a better position.

Richard
 

Dikitriki

Flying Squad
The following show where we are up to. Obviously the crossing goes in the running line gaps:)

P1010451a.jpg

P1010452a.jpg

P1010453a.jpg

Before I laid the pointwork, I covered all the electrical contacts on the underside with copper grease in an attempt to limit corrosion. Also, we tried another Kiss loco through the pointwork - another BR38 - no problems whatever:confused:, I need to get Steve's castle up here to test an Aster:)

Richard
 
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